Sunday, September 7, 2014

Humanities: What IS Humanities & DEEP DT: Experiment PhaseWarm Up:Improv & Circle DoodlesMonday kicks off with a quick improv game involving handshakes. Grand fun.Then more fun with circle doodles. Let's see where our brains take us.What IS Humanities?Then we'll be conducting an activity to help your understanding of just what Humanities IS and how it combines English and social studies. It will also help you get a much broader sense of social studies than simply history or geography, and a broader sense of English as being about communication in all of its forms and not just novels or essays. (At least, that's what we hope happens.)Just read that paragraph. Felt fancy.We're going to create a huge definition of social studies that covers all the different topics within social studies that we might explore this year.Then we're going to do the same thing with English.Then we're going to see where they overlap and say, "That's a lot of what Humanities is going to look like." We hope.There. Same thing. Less fancy.Design Thinking Challenge: Design the Room: Experiment PhaseDEEP Design ThinkingDISCOVER: What is our challenge? What do we need to know about this room?EMPATHIZE: What do others need to be successful, comfortable, connected in this room? EXPERIMENT: What might this room look like? **** Today! PRODUCE: Make it. And then see how well we did and reiterate if necessaryWe'll be using the data collected the other day a.k.a. the compass charts and the sticky notes and using that information to create user-needs-driven diagrams of the room. After successfully creating a drawing, you'll have some 3D tools (LEGO bricks, Jenga blocks, K'NEX) you can use to create a low-rez mock up of your room design.These drawings and models are key because they will inform the physical design of the room.HOMEWORKGather: Design KitsDue: ASAP; if a challenge for you, talk to Mr. Ryder privately -- he can probably help)

Sign Up: For REMINDDue: ASAP. This will be easier when laptops roll but still . . . please make an effort if you want this service to help you out. Please encourage your folks to do so as well.Curate: Personal collection. 3 artifacts that could represent who you are. Due: Wednesday.